THE BUSH-CHENEY ADMINISTRATION’S LEGACY COULD BE CALLED THE, “LOST POLITICAL DECADE”

 

…Dick Cheney still loves being called “Darth Vader”

 

Fortunately, for the benefit of most Americans, the key members of this past administration have moved on.

Recently, some political historians have been scratching their heads about what will be the legacy of the George W. Bush Administration.

When it came time to replace the “Dubya Bush Administration” with that of President Obama’s, the question eventually became, “What happened to those who were key parts of the W. Bush administration?” 

The whole George ”W” administration, as they were leaving the White House, including the president himself, they were “all tied up with the horrible, Dick Cheney-like disapproval ratings”.  Here we are, years later, and if it wasn’t for the FOX cable news channel and Karl Rove’s, Citizens-United political organizations, all would have apparently just disappeared into the wood-work.

And since I just brought up his name, I have been calling the one currently visible reminder of that administration, Mr. Dick Cheney, a lying SOB ever since I started writing political articles years ago.  And I have yet to change my mind on that statement.  Since he left his office as VP, and since he has now received a tax payer-paid -for new heart transplant, he has only gotten worse.

I have said for years that it was obvious that Cheney was the real president running the show after the  9/11 disaster, and “Dubya” Bush was just a young “president in training”, at least for his first term.  (Hell, it was Mr. Cheney himself, that was the one that picked himself as the best person to run as George W’s running mate!)

As a case in point, in a recent interview with ABC’s Martha Raddatz, Martha asked Dick Cheney about the public’s strong, on-going disapproval of him, the Bush administration and the Iraq war.  After a very pregnant pause, Cheney just sat back and said, “So?”  In other words, this arrogant, former vice president, was asking her, “So, what’s your point?  I was running the show and I could care less as to what the public thought.”

Mr. “Darth Vader Cheney”, (a name Mr. Cheney relishes), doesn’t give a “rat’s patootie” about what the American people think about him, or the Bush Administration, and he never has cared since he stopped being a five time, elected US Representative for the state of Wyoming.

Many historians have already stated that Richard Bruce “Dick” Cheney will go down in history as one of the most powerful vice presidents, and one of the most despised.

And now, Cheney’s daughter, Liz Cheney, is trying to carry on the family’s political legacy by campaigning for a Wyoming seat in the US Senate.  But fortunately for the Wyoming citizens, Liz keeps getting it all wrong about running a political campaign. 

First, she was caught trying to show-off her “Wyoming-ness” by getting her own, Wyoming Fishing License.  But she was found to have lied on her license application saying she had been in the state for one year, which is the state’s requirement for a license.  She had instead only been back in the state for less than 9 months.  In fact, Ms. Cheney is 47 years old, and she has not lived in Wyoming since she graduated from High School.  But she continues in trying to sell herself to the local voters as a long-time, conservative, Wyoming citizen.

After going through all the negative publicity about the fishing license, Liz made even more news when she said she was against same-sex marriage. 

Now, this may be a very good position for a conservative Wyoming politician.  But Liz’s gay sister, that is legally married to another woman, and the two women are raising their two children, they both came out saying Liz’s statement was news to them.  It has been publicly well known for years that the gay Cheney daughter was “out-of-the closet” and was with her female partner for years.  And they have also made it known that they were never aware of Liz Cheney’s negative attitude toward same-sex marriage.  Of course, this internal family feud has also made national news.

So far, the current, well liked GOP Senator of Wyoming, Mike Enzi, that Cheney will be running against, continues to be ahead of Ms. Cheney in all of the polls.  In fact, back in the Summer, the poll numbers were 55% for Enzi and 21% for Liz Cheney.  The latest “”Favorable” ratings show Mike Enzi at 76% Favorable, Liz Cheney at 45% Favorable.

As to her chances, much of the local public’s attitude towards her campaign was recently summed up in an article in the Washington Post by MSNBC’s Rachael Maddow, when she wrote, “Maybe [Dick] Cheney’s daughter Liz will break the pattern next year with a successful Senate bid in Wyoming, but if you made it through that sentence without spitting coffee out your nose, you’re in rare company.”

But I digress, so let’s get back to the subject at hand

The unpopular presidency of George W. Bush & Company has proven to be a blackball on the résumés of a generation of past potential Republican leaders.  Historians just don’t know what to write about those eight years except that it was one of the worst eight years in the nation’s political history.

 

And, since that time, very few of the active players in those two Republican terms are showing up anywhere as leaders in today’s Republican Party.

Just look at who is being considered as potential 2016 GOP presidential prospects.  Rand Paul, Chris Christy, Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio, or any of the other current Republican Governors that are being mentioned today.  None of these prospects came from working in or near the White House while George W. & Dick were running the show.

All you see from those past visible GOP participants, are those on the Fox network today.  And some of those left-overs are from the failed John McCain and Mitt Romney campaigns such as the ½ governor, Sarah Palin along with “Bush’s Brain”, Mr. Karl Rove.

The reality is that the demise of national leadership prospects for the Republican Party is one of today’s greatest political failures, and it will be one of the most important negative legacies of George W. Bush.

As for the Obama administration, most observers see President Obama going down in history as being a very capable president, but also for being ham-strung by the activities of a highly obstructive GOP.

In addition, one must only look at those in the wings for the Democrats that are showing their strong political capabilities.  Those individuals include, Hillary Clinton, Joe Biden, Elizabeth Warren, Sherrod Brown, Claire McCaskill, Cory Booker, Wendy Davis, Martin O’Malley, Deval Patrick, Andrew Cuomo and Amy Klobuchar.

There is no one so far within the Republican party that has the focus of an acceptable centrist politician that could compete with anyone in this line-up in head-to-head political competitions.

The next four to six years should be very interesting for both political parties, but for the last Bush Administration, it is a very sad story of so many failures.

Copyright  G.Ater  2013